KayLynn McAbee is one of thousands of high school graduates across the state slated to take costly remedial courses that do not count toward her college degree.

But McAbee will not have to pay for the courses because of a new summer program developed by Denver Public Schools. The program, which will offer free remedial classes in math and English, is geared toward curbing the number of DPS graduates taking remedial courses in college.

“This will help a lot of students because they’re not just remedial classes, they’re also classes that will help kids be more confident in college,” McAbee said.

District officials said they came up with the program after the release of a report earlier this year from the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

More than 60 percent of DPS students needed remediation once they entered college, according to the 2012 Remedial Education Report. The number is considerably higher than the state average of 40 percent.

“What we wanted to do for sure is see how we tackle that — not run away from it but how we could actually change it into a positive reality for our students,” said Bernard McCune, executive director for DPS’s office of college and career readiness.

The summer program is well-intentioned but does not do enough to address concerns over the high numbers of DPS students who need remediation when they graduate, said Van Schoales, CEO of the A+ Denver school reform group.

“We should be really focusing as early as possible rather than waiting until the summer before they are entering college,” Schoales said. “I think there should be interventions anywhere along the way, for anybody that wants to go to college, but it makes more sense to catch kids earlier in ninth, 10th and 11th grade rather than waiting until now.”

According to the state’s remedial education policy, students must meet certain thresholds on either the ACT, SAT or Accuplacer tests to show they are prepared for college. Students who do not score high enough on the tests are expected to take remedial courses within their first 30 semester hours in college.

Colleges and universities do not give credit for the classes, which cost students and the state millions of dollars each year.

Remediation courses for nearly 9,900 students in Colorado cost about $58 million in the 2011-12 school year, according to the most recent information available from the state. Colleges paid $19 million, while students took on the remaining brunt of the costs.

“We need to figure out how to reduce the need for remediation and reduce the costs to the system and the students overall,” said Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia. He said it is encouraging to see that school districts are trying to tackle the statewide problem.

DPS will pay for about 150 recent graduates to take remedial courses next week. The program will be offered to high school seniors next year. They will take the classes during the school year.

The courses will be taught at DPS schools by instructors from the Community College of Denver and Western Colorado Community College.

The summer courses will cost DPS about $50,700. District officials said the program could save students and the state money in the long run.

McAbee is one of those students. She graduated this month from John F. Kennedy High School with a 3.1 grade-point average but struggled on tests that determine whether a student is prepared to take certain college-level classes. She said she chose to participate in the summer program because she wanted to make sure she was ready for her freshman year at the University of Colorado-Pueblo.

“I knew that if I took these classes that I would be better prepared for college, prepared to take on the workload and most likely finish college in four years, instead of the five years it would take if I had to take remedial classes,” McAbee said.

The courses offered by DPS will be accepted by Colorado universities. A student who gets a C or higher during the summer would not have to take the course in college.

Kevin MacLennan, director of admissions for University of Colorado at Boulder, applauded the DPS program. He said any program that helps students get caught up before entering college could make a big difference in boosting graduation rates.

“With some of the courses there is a progression to them, and if you don’t have the right progression, you may attempt a course and not be successful,” MacLennan said. “This allows that in-between step to hopefully set you up for success in that course.”

Florida’s state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz’s home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his “final level of risk is low,” despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.